Information Technology Foresight

The latest thinking on creating competitive advantage through information technology.

November 2017

The 2017 Global Innovation 1000 Study

Companies have benefitted greatly from the globalization of innovation. But the rise of economic nationalism threatens to reverse this trend, hampering corporate R&D and its positive impact on financial performance.

30% — of corporate innovation executives say they have recently felt pressure to change where or how they conduct R&D.

This month’s issue of IT Foresight features “Will Stronger Borders Weaken Innovation? The 2017 Global Innovation 1000 Study,” our annual analysis of spending on innovation and its effects on corporate performance. While R&D spending reached an all-time high of $702 billion, concerns about the negative effects of increasingly protectionist politics and policies on the free flow of information, money, and talent across borders are also on the rise. Will further restrictions on international trade and investment affect your company’s innovation efforts?

Featured Foresights

Global spending on innovation continues to rise, and the proportion of corporate revenues devoted to R&D has never been higher. But are these increases sustainable in the face of growing protectionist sentiment and the rise of economic nationalism? Already, companies are feeling the effects of tighter borders, especially in slowdowns in the movement of talent around the world. The greater risk, however, is the sheer increase in uncertainty regarding the future of global R&D. Can companies afford to take a wait-and-see approach to the actual long-term effects of economic nationalism?

What does the power of artificial intelligence really mean for business? Is it a scary job-killing threat, or is it just fancy software? It’s neither. Rather, AI is—or should be—a key element in every company’s efforts to boost productivity and enhance their product and services portfolios. This article breaks the AI universe down into three types—assisted intelligence, augmented intelligence, and autonomous intelligence—and offers guidance on how to develop a strategy to incorporate AI into your business model and operations.

As promising as the technology is, incorporating artificial intelligence into your enterprise is no easy task. In this blog post, PwC’s chief technologist for the U.S. advises executives to take a practical, business-oriented approach to its implementation. Among his suggestions: develop specific use cases for the technology, set specific goals for the return on investment of each case, focus on how employees and customers can make effective use of the technology, and get your structured and unstructured data in proper order.

A variety of new digital tools has sparked renewed interest in business process automation (BPA). The key to success is to not get hung up on the technology, but to focus on the benefits to be gained, and to manage the transition effectively.